Ritz-Carlton and IMG to package offers

The Ritz-Carlton Sarasota is partnering with Manatee County's IMG Academy to offer athletes and Ritz guests and residents exclusive rates and offers at both facilities.

Hotel rooms, conference facilities, the beach club and golf course amenities will be available to athletes and guests training at IMG for exclusive rates, both organizations announced this week. In return, Ritz-Carlton guests, residence owners and employees will have access to specific programs offered at the IMG Academy campus near Bradenton.

These services include special instruction from IMG trainers for families, groups and corporate team-building activities.

"We are pleased to join a world-class institution such as IMG Academy and provide their myriad of guests with accommodations and amenities at our hotel," said Damien O'Riordan, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton Sarasota. "Our brands are aligned with the same standards of providing high-quality, memorable experiences to our guests. It is an ideal alignment of two like-minded institutions."

O'Riordan joined the local Ritz-Carlton after a turbulent year of change for the resort property, marked by the loss of key managers and by abrupt changes in some of the hotel's exclusive programs, such as its salon, in-house restaurant and golf memberships, that created significant shifts in the bellwether resort's normally unruffled image.

It is not uncommon for resorts in Southwest Florida to partner with other agencies and organizations, but it is new to the Ritz-Carlton culture, at least locally.

"I have stayed in places where there is a gym or workout facility across the street and hotel guys are entitled to use it, but nothing like the facilities at IMG," said Virginia Haley, president of Visit Sarasota County, the county's tourism agency. "This partnership doesn't suprise me, though, considering how strong each one is as a business. A lot of athletes training at IMG already stay at the Ritz."

The 266-room hotel boasts a recently redesigned in-house restaurant, called Jack Dusty, along with the beach club property on Lido Beach, an 18-hole, Tom Fazio-designed golf course near Lakewood Ranch and a trio of residential towers containing more than 200 condominiums.

"We are continually looking for ways to elevate the experience of the hundreds of thousands of student-athletes and their families, collegiate and professional athletes, teams and organizations, camp and event participants and corporate guests from around the globe who visit us each year," said Gary Pluchino, vice president of business development at IMG.

"It's exciting to be able to offer a premium accommodation option in The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, where we know our guests will be offered an unforgettable experience that we hope is an extension of the great hospitality they receive on the campus of IMG Academy."

The IMG Academy is an international sporting complex and school for young athletes, with state-of-the-art facilities for competitors in a variety of sports. The Legislature has allocated IMG $5 million in funding to go toward building a new sports complex and student dorms.

The facility will also host the NCAA division II men's and women's track and field championships in 2016 and 2017.